Blue Flower Caresses the Night Sky
by Isamu Mamoru
Summary: Some new soldiers come to aid in the fight against the titans, alongside the beloved characters we all know and love! But are the titans the real threat, or is there an even bigger monster out there waiting in the winds. What relationships will get torn apart and made during this dangerous and exciting adventure that takes place right after they capture Annie!
1. Meet the Trainees (1)

_This takes place right after the events of the season one finale of Shingeki No Kyoujin._

_Back at the training barracks._

Shadis walked up to the next person. "Who the hell are you?!" The girl teared up a little but did the salute and answered. "Sir! I am Sakura Shizuru from Trost!" She quivered a bit but stood up as tall as she could. She was five feet tall and had black shoulder length cut hair and dark-brown eyes. She was half Chinese and half Japanese with an hourglass type figure. She was 16 and weighed 150 pounds, which mostly consisted of her breast size. She was also very shy and was not very good with being yelled at or being in trouble so she did the best she could at staying as composed as possible. Shadis got closer to her face and yelled some more. "Why are you here, egg role?!" A single tear dropped and she shouted her answer back. "So I can become a stronger person physically and mentally to protect the people I love and stay alive!" Shadis shouted at her yet again, "The last one of your kind that went through here made me wonder how all of you could've died off, but now I know! It's because of scrawny little shits like you that all the zipperheads went extinct!"

At that moment they all heard a loud enough thud that it echoed throughout the courtyard they were in. It was about 10 people down from where Sakura was standing and the sound was a fist hitting a chest. Shadis turned and looked with a somewhat surprised face at a boy who had started his salute. The girl on the right of the boy was looking at him with a face that, in words, would clearly say "What the fuck are you doing?!" Shadis started walking towards the boy. Sakura looked over at him with silent tears spilling down her cheeks.

Shadis stood in front of him. "Are you that eager to be fucking yelled at, boy…" The boy stood there doing the salute and spoke in a calm voice after mustering up the strength to talk and giving a deep breath out. "I figured it would've happened eventually… So why not do it now and get it over with." Shadis looked down at him and spoke normally. "What's your name, you scrawny little shit stain?" The boy looked up at him with glaring eyes. "William Geary… sir." William was five feet eight inches and weighed 135 pounds and was Caucasian. He had blue eyes, broad shoulders, and had dark brown hair that would become like an afro if it wasn't cut down to size. He was 18 years old. Shadis looked at him with eyes that were filled with equal, if not more, hatred. "Y'know, William, the last maggot that gave me a look like that wasn't able to have children the next morning… Why are you here…" William kept a stern look and simply said, "Because she is…" and pointed to Sakura.

"Is that so…" Shadis then buried his fist into William's stomach with a good hard punch as William bent over in pain. Sakura flinched but William gave her a sign not to move, and she listened. William started to stand up with a bit of a struggle, but before he completely stood up Shadis kneed him in the face and William fell to the ground holding his face as blood dripped out his nose and mouth. As Shadis started to yell at him again both the girl next to him and Sakura's eyes started going darker than usual. Shadis leaned down and yelled at William. "Stay down, you weak piece of shit! You may have been able to have gotten back up before, but out there, you don't get second chances! Once you're down, you're dead! Now, ask yourself this; how the fuck are you gonna protect her if you can't even protect yourself, you fuckin' pipsqueak!" Shadis gave him one last kick to the stomach and kept moving on down the line. Soon, the ones that needed it had their beings torn down from the inside out.

_Skip ahead to dinner time_

"Ow! Hey would ya take it easy Sam?" William said while looking at the girl patching him up. This was the same girl that was standing next to him in line. "Oh would you shut up. It's your own damn fault that you're hurt so quit bitching." Sam was five feet five inches tall and weighed 120 pounds. She had black hair and dark-brown eyes that would slightly change color depending on her mood. Sometimes they would get darker and sometimes they would turn a more green color. She has a hard time expressing emotion but usually does so through her facial features. "Alright," she said, "it looks like your nose is broken and you bit your cheek so hard that it started bleeding." She reached in the first aid kit and taped up his nose and gave him some cotton balls to hold against the cut on the inside of his cheek.

Sakura sat there with a sad look on her face. "I'm sorry, this is all my fault. If I wasn't so weak hearted…" She teared up as William flicked her forehead. "Don't talk like that, alright. You're not weak-hearted; you have the biggest heart out of everyone here." Sam started putting the medical kit away. "And besides," she said with a slight irritated tone, "it's his own damn fault he got hurt." She sighed and sat next to both of them. "But I can see why you did it. Just don't piss Shadis off even more, alright? You REALLY don't want him as an enemy in here." William looked at her. "I know. Oh and, thanks for bandaging up my nose." He stood up and threw the cotton balls out. I know we'll survive this training… together. Then… we'll join the Survey Corps… together." He said this with a serious face, as he knew the next three years would be some of the hardest of their lives.


	2. Meet the Trainees (2)

A few weeks had passed and everyone had passed basic training. Sakura fainted from exhaustion the first time around but once she got used to it she was able to do it and stay on her feet afterwards. William completed the basic training with not much trouble at all, nothing special but nothing terrible about his times either. Lastly, Sam had also completed basic training but, in the process, she had injured her knee. This worried the three about if she would be able to work the maneuver gear or not consider you need a decent amount of balance to work it. Finally, the day had come for them to start their maneuver gear training and hone their skills as soldiers in the hand-to-hand training as well.

William looked back at Sakura who was standing behind him in line and gave her a reassuring smile. "Come on, everything is going to be fine." Sakura sighed and whispered to herself. "Yeah, I hope so…" Sam stood behind them in the same line and had a very angry look on her face. She had not gotten much sleep since she injured her leg and she was not looking forward to having to strain it in practice. Not to mention the fact that they really didn't have pain medicine so she just had to tough it out. Finally, it was William's turn to try the maneuver gear.

Shadis stood there next to the maneuver gear. "Well, look who it is. I hope for your sake your skills with the gear are better than your skills at fighting, you sorry excuse for a soldier." William scowled at him as he walked up to the gear and un-buckled it. He then fastened it around himself as they started to lift him up. He wobbled as soon as he left the ground but then steadied himself. He did so for about five minutes then they let him down. "I'm impressed." Shadis said with the same hate-filled look. William saluted, "Thank you sir. I've always had good balance." Shadis kept scowling. "Well now, isn't that fucking fantastic for you? Why don't you unfasten your tootoo and let the next person try you fuckin ballerina!" William quickly unfastened the harness and stepped out, once again scowling.

Sakura stepped up and Shadis gave his usual expression. "Alright egg role, let's see what you got." Sakura did the salute and shouted "Yes sir!" as she walked up to the harness. William was watching her from the side and smiled at her as he mouthed "You'll do fine." She smiled back and put the harness on. However as soon as they lifted her up it was quite obvious that she was not doing fine. As soon as her feet were off the ground she fell face first. Luckily she wasn't far off of the ground yet so it didn't hurt all that much. Shadis walked up to her, "Well, if this is your way of killing titans you mind as well kiss those tits of yours goodbye you fucking yellow dairy cow! Get off your ass and move it, now!" She started crying a bit as she unfastened the harness and walked into Williams arms. She started crying full out now. William stroked her hair to try to calm her down. "Shhh it's okay. You'll get it next time." He smiled down at her

Sam's eyes yet again turned slightly darker than usual. She stepped up and didn't even wait to be addressed before putting on the gear. Shadis looked at her. "Well Garrett, you look pretty goddamn confident. Let's hope you can do better than that egg roll over there." Sam looked at him with an expression that could only be described as "it is fucking on". They lifted her up and she wobbled for a couple seconds then evened herself out as she cringed in pain. Shadis was determined to break her so he let it go on for about 20 minutes, then they let her down. She unfastened herself and once again gave Shadis a look as she walked past that said "don't fuck with my friends". Shadis knew what it meant but also knew one of his students just proved him wrong, so he had to fix that. "Hey, Garrett," he said as she was walking away, "why don't you strengthen up that leg by running laps until everyone is finished with their training?" She didn't look back only give a complete face of hatred to the ground as she started running, stepping on numerous anthills on her run to try to hold back her frustration and anger.

Finally, after a few hours, everyone had finished and it was now getting towards dinner time. William and Sakura had finished their run and were waiting for Sam to come back from her run. Well, she came back, but there were two other people with her. "Hey!" The taller boy yelled out. "Long time no see!" Sakura's face brightened. "Hey, I'd know that accent anywhere! It's Tom!" She ran towards him and Sam and hugged him. Sam, meanwhile, was still ranting about what and asshole and a dickhead Shadis was. Tom ruffled Sakura's hair and smiled down. "Hey how've things been going?" Tom Finch. He was six foot one inches and weighed about 160 pounds. He was more muscular than William was and had more combat training and was only sixteen years old. He also had a very clear British accent, but not too strong. William walked up and gave him a one armed hug and a handshake. "Hey man," William said, "it's been way too long." The other person that was with Sam while she was on her rant spoke up. "Oh, sure, just forget about me then." She said with a smile and a kiddingly tone in her voice.

William walked over with a smile and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, shush your face I was getting' to ya." He gave her a hug as she hugged back. Cynthia Stryder. She was 16 and she was already part of the Garrison. She had been for a year now. She was of Chinese decent and was 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 125 pounds. She had black hair that went down to her elbows. "So," she spoke as her and William parted from the hug, "how's Sakura holding up?" Sakura was telling Tom about everything Shadis had said to her and Tom was getting pretty furious. William responded with a sigh, "It could be going better… but it's nice to know she's not the only one who got those racist comments from him. Oh, that reminds me, hey Tom!" Tom turned his head. "Yeah man, what's up?" William walked over to him.

"Hey so how'd you do on the maneuver gear training?" Tom looked proud of himself. "I was the best in my line of trainees, why?" He asked curiously. William put his arm around Sakura's shoulder. "Do you mind helping this one out? She kinda messed up on her first day." He laughed a little and Sakura blushed and looked down. Tom responded as his cheerful self, "Yeah, sure thing. I'll work on it with her all throughout this week. By this time next week she'll be good and ready to fly." He smiled and gave me a thumbs-up, but then looked more serious. "Oh and, did you here? They found out that Titans are actually INSIDE the wall. They suspect the people obsessed with the wall know something, but they're not saying a damn thing." They all took the information to heart and everyone looked at Cynthia with a concerned look. "Oh don't worry." She said to all of them. "Even if the titans escape the wall there's still no way they'd climb it. And remember, I graduated the academy in a year, so I know how to handle myself!" She said in reassurance. With that, they all decided it was a good idea to get some sleep and turn in for the night. They said their goodbyes and left for their separate cabins.

Tom was right. After the next week Sakura was ready and able to use the maneuver gear. A few more weeks after practicing in the forest with fake titans, they started their combat training, and they all managed to pass, some more easily than others. In that period of training, it was said that Wall Rose, the wall Cynthia had guarded, had gotten swarmed with titans. There was no hole in the wall yet titans somehow got into the city. Cynthia hadn't of visited the rest of the time they were in training… The next few years were indeed hard on them all but eventually they all graduated. The only one out of the four of them that had made it into the top ten was Tom, at number ten.

William approached Tom after the graduation ceremony. "So, will you be joining the Military Police than?" he asked. Tom smiled slightly and replied. "Yeah, sorry to disappoint you but I'm not joining the Survey Corps. It's not because I'm afraid of going out and helping humanity or anything, it's just that… well… Let me put it this way for you. You guys need to go out there and give it your all to protect your squad mates and humanity in the way of gathering information. I need to go inside the walls and protect humanity from itself. For a while now I've heard that it's gotten pretty bad inside the walls so, I'm gonna do my best to try and fix it. I hope you understand. I don't want you to think I'm a coward or anything." William put his hand on Tom's shoulder and smiled. "You go in there and straighten things up man. I'm gonna miss ya while I'm out there." They both nodded and hugged each other. "Tell Sakura and Sam that I said goodbye, alright? I have to leave now because they're taking everyone who wants to who got in the top ten to the inner city. I'll see you guys there someday!" And with that he ran off, and Sam, Sakura, and William all started traveling towards the Survey Corps headquarters.


	3. A Way to Remember (1)

Sam, William, and Sakura all walked up to the Survey Corps building where they would all get evaluated to see if they would be more useful gathering information with Hanji's squad, or heading onto the front lines with Levi's squad. Hanji, Levi, and Erwin were in the room ready for the evaluation. Sam, William, and Sakura were the last three to be evaluated as one at a time they stepped into the room. After they were all evaluated they gathered around each other. William was the first one to speak up. "I got put in Hanji's squad. What about you guys?" Sakura's face lit up. "Oh, really? Me too!" She hugged him as they both looked at Sam. She had a scowling face on as she mumbled to the floor. "I got put on the short guy's team…" William and Sakura's face looked a little sadder until William gave her a reassuring smile. Hey don't worry about it, Sam. I'm sure we'll get to work with each other a lot out in the field. Also, if anyone gives Sakura a hard time in the barracks, I'll be there to set them straight."

Sam sighed, "Yeah, I guess so. I don't see why they have to wait to tell us the reason we got assigned to those teams until we get to the barracks though. It's stupid if you ask me." Just then Levi walked out of the room and past the three of them. As he was passing them he turned his head to Sam. "Let's go. We've got a long ride ahead of us." He said then continued to walk. Sam looked at William and Sakura one more time as she walked behind her new captain towards their horses. As she rode off she looked behind her. She could see Sakura crying and William comforting her as he waved goodbye. She looked forward and sighed again, knowing it was going to be the second hardest thing she's ever had to deal with.

Sam and Levi arrived at the barracks at around 8:00 pm. They got off their horses and tied them up at the stable. Levi walked over to Sam. "That was a long ride, so if you have to take a shit, then go do it now and then meet me in the dining hall. Everyone is eagerly awaiting your arrival." He said that then walked off inside. Sam looked at him walk away and tried to ignore the random poop comment. She followed soon after and walked through the double doors into the dining room. Mikasa, Eren, Jean, and Armin were all in there, along with their captain, Levi. Sam walked in and shut the door as all of them except for Levi got up and walked over to say hello.

Eren walked up to her and smiled as he held out his hand. "Welcome to squad Levi. My name is Eren Jaeger. We're all very glad to have you here. Let's take humanity back together!" Sam shook his hand and looked at him thinking _Take humanity back? That's a bit of a stretch. Well, at least he's optimistic. _She spoke out loud now. "Thank you, I'm glad to be here." Next Jean walked up and held out his hand with a bland look. "My name is Jean Kirschstein. Welcome aboard." Sam shook his hand, "Thank you." As Jean was walking away he was thinking to himself, _she has hair almost as gorgeous as Mikasa's… _Next up was Mikasa. She walked up and also held out her hand. "My name is Mikasa Ackerman. Welcome." She said with a very suspicious look. Sam slowly reached her hand out and shook it and said thank you. As she was shaking her hand Sam was thinking, _what the hell is her problem? Why is she staring at me like that? _Mikasa then walked back to her chair. Lastly was Armin. "Hi there, my name's Armin Arlert. Glad to have you on the team." Sam once again said thank you and shook his hand, but she noticed his eyes looking all up and down her body as his hand pulled back from hers and he went back to his chair with a friendly smile.

Levi spoke up. "Alright, everybody sit down. We need to go over a few things and let the newcomer tell us a couple things about herself." Sam sat down in the empty chair across the table from Levi. "Hi, my name is Sam Garrett. It's very nice to meet all of you and to be a part of the squad." Armin looked at her and spoke up. "First things first, why don't you tell us how bad that leg injury is? You do have one don't you?" Sam looked at him with a bit of shock. "Well, yeah. I mean I can still work the maneuver gear. I just hurt it during a training drill. How did you know?" She sat up with a curious face. Armin just kept staring at her. "Well," he said, "I noticed as you were standing up that you were putting most of your weight on your left leg. Also, when you sat down, you took your time and went a little slower than most people your age do, shifting your weight to your left leg again while holding the right one. I also noticed your hand was shaking a bit and you gripped a little tighter than most people would during a casual handshake, giving me the suspicion something was bothering you. You know, you shouldn't go out fighting with an injury if it's bad, no matter how good you are." His eyes glanced over at Levi for a moment who was sitting there drinking from his cup, then they moved back to Sam.

Sam looked at him with a bit of annoyance and a bit impressed at the same time. "Look, I didn't say anything because I knew I could handle it. It's not broken or anything, I just sprained it at one point and it never got treated properly, and now my leg hurts all the time. That's all I know about it. If I can still walk, I can fight."Armin looked at her a bit longer then sighed. Levi put his cup on the table. "Well, now that that's out of the way, let's go over the plan that we'll be training for for the next few months." He crossed his legs, leaned back, and put his boots up on the table. "We're going to a nearby town that got deserted after the first titan attack. We always keep an eye on the amount of titans that are in each town as we go through them as to see which ones are better to avoid on our trips outside the wall. But in this case we're going there because there's so many titans. In this town, there are at least double the amount of titans there are in the others we've visited. Our mission is to go there and find out what's so significant about this town. The teams for this mission are going to be split into two since it's a relatively small town and we want to be as discrete as possible so we can at least try to stay out of site. The teams are as follows: Jaeger and Ackerman, Arlert and Kirschstein, and myself and Garrett. Now, if there are no questions, then everyone is to go back to their assigned rooms and get to bed. We have a busy day tomorrow."

Everyone nodded and got up as Jean, Eren, Armin, and Mikasa left the room. Levi had picked up his cup and started to walk towards the door when Sam stood up. "Captain, may I have a moment of your time? I need to talk to you about something." Levi looked back at her with an expressionless face and sighed. He walked back over to the table and sat down, as did Sam. "Captain," she continued, "why me? Out of the three of us William had the best control with the maneuver gear and Sakura did the best on the written exam, so why did you pick me?" Levi looked at her and stared for a moment and went to take a sip from his cup, but realized he had already drank it all. Sam stood up and walked over to the fridge. "Do you want some wine?" She said as she pulled out a bottle. Levi stared down at his cup. "I don't drink. Just get me some apple juice." Sam turned back to the fridge and held in a laugh as she got out the apple juice for the infamous and almighty titan killer. She walked over to the table after pouring the drinks and gave Levi his as she sat down and set hers in front of her.

Levi took a sip then swirled the apple juice around in his cup a little. "You wanna know why… Because as soon as you walked into that interview room I knew… I could tell by the look in your eyes that you held the most pain than anyone else I saw that day. More pain than anyone of my current squad members… the type of pain that is only had when you've lost someone you truly care about. What the others wouldn't understand is that losing someone you love… and losing someone that you're in love with… are two completely different types of pain." Sam froze and her eyes went wide as her hands started shaking a little. She got a painful look in her eyes and downed her drink as Levi continued to talk. "The reason I know what that looks like, is because I see it in myself every single day. I made the wrong choices too, and I saw the ones I cared for suffer the ultimate price for it as well. The reason I chose you is because I knew I was the only one who understood the amount of pain and suffering you live with every day. Now my objective is to help you realize that you don't want to forget that pain, you want to form it. Think of everything that you lost and take every ounce of hurt you feel, and make that your weapon. That is why I chose you." He stood up and finished his apple juice. "Well, that's enough talk. Go to bed, we have a long day tomorrow." Levi walked out of the room leaving Sam sitting there, clenching her cup with shaky hands, and once Levi had left, she let out a few tears and headed to bed. She knew now that she was on the right squad.


	4. A Way to Remember (2)

The next morning, Sam had woken up to the sound of the other squad members getting ready. She got dressed, ate breakfast, and went downstairs to join them as soon as she could. She got to her horse and started getting it ready as she looked over at Levi and he looked back. She nodded and got the horse all set. "All right, everybody," Levi said. "listen up. There's going to be a new formation since we now have an even number of squad members. Jaeger and Ackerman, you take the middle. Arlert and Kirschstein, you take the left flank. Me and Garrett will take the right. Now, it'll be really difficult getting in there unnoticed, which means two of us need to BE noticed. Jaeger, Ackerman, this is where you need to pay close attention. You WILL die if you do not execute this next part correctly. When we get about fifty yards away from the town, we're going to break formation. Me and Garrett will go to the right side outside the town and find a place to keep our horses, Arlert and Kirschstein, you do the same only on the left side. Jaeger and Ackerman, you're going to ride straight through the town."

Everyone at this point looked confused. Mikasa spoke up. "Sir, doesn't that seem a bit too reckless? What if we run into abnormals?" Levi continued. "I thought of that, and I planned ahead of time. You notice that on each side of the saddles of your horses there are five green gas canisters. When you get halfway through the city you're each going to pull all ten pins on those canisters. Those are special made two liter canisters that should provide a thick cloud for a few hours. Once you pull those, and there's a thick cloud behind you, you jump off those horses and get into cover immediately. This only works if the titans still think that you're on those horses after you jump off. Once the coast is clear, start searching the houses, streets, and anything you can to find clues. The other two teams would have already started doing that while you were creating the decoy. There are three main things you have to remember after that's all done. Don't get seen, don't split up, and meet back at the entrance of the town by sunset. After that, Jaeger will ride on the back of my horse, and Ackerman will ride on the back of Arlerts horse. Any questions?" They all were silent so they each got on their individual horses, got into formation, then rode off towards the town.

As planned, they split formation in time. Once again, as planned, the titans chased after Mikasa and Eren. Just as they hit the middle of the city both of them pulled all ten gas canisters on their horses and, once the smoke got thick enough, immediately rolled of their horses and under a house. The plan went off without a synch. Soon, Mikasa and Eren were back as a pair and they started cautiously searching the town along with the others. As long as they all didn't startle the few titans that remained in the city, they would be safe for the rest of the day.

Sam and Levi had been in four houses already and spent about an hour searching and still nothing. They were about to enter their fifth house. Sam turned to Levi, "Are you sure there's something in this town? If the others have been to their fair share of houses by now, we should already be halfway done." Levi looked back as he grabbed the door handle. "There has to be something here. We'll just keep searching until we-" both Levi and Sam got a surprised look on their faces as they heard pots and pans fall over inside the house they were about to go into. Levi grabbed Sam without warning and pulled her to the side of the house. She was about to protest but heard the footsteps of a titan starting to close in. Just as Levi had predicted would happen, a titan appeared. It was about 8 meters tall and started walking towards them. It got closer and closer to the front of the house and would soon be at an angle where it could see them. They were desperately looking for a way to not fight the titan. Sam looked up and saw a window that they would be able to climb in. She wrapped her survey corps cloak around the handle of her maneuver gear so to reduce the noise, and smashed open the window, dragging Levi inside afterwards just in time to escape the titans view. The sat there quietly until they were sure the titan was gone.

Sam got up and started pacing as she whisper yelled. "What the fuck was that?! Is someone trying to get us fucking killed?!" Levi sat there. "Well, that's probably their plan to whoever stumbled across this house. Look here, they attached a string to the door knob, then attached the other end of it to a few pots and pans so that when someone turned the door knob, they would come crashing down, alerting a lot of titans when it did. Luckily for us only one came, and that's only because we cleared most of them out before hand." Levi got up and brushed himself off. "In any event, someone obviously doesn't want this place found." He grabbed the door knob to the first room he could find and turned it. "There's gotta be something important about-" He opened the door and stopped mid sentence as his eyes grew an expression of shock and horror when they only do when he's truly angry. "What…" he kept looking. "What… what… the fuck is this?" Sam walked over, "Captain? What's wro-" she too was stopped mid-sentence.

What they were both seeing, is a room filled with piles and piles of survey corps cloaks, still covered in blood. Some of it dry, some of it wet. Some even still had the heads or torso's attached to them. Sam backed away and started to throw up on the floor as Levi just stood there staring. After a while he closed the door and looked down with an expressionless face again, almost struggling to speak. "C'mon… we need to keep searching the house. Someone is obviously killing our comrades and we need to find out who." He went to the next room only to find paper after paper pinned to the walls, sitting on desks in folders, and basically just spread out all over the room. He picked a piece up and started reading it. "Today I made progress. It seems as though starting to try to communicate better with them has been a success, but only because I'm telling them to go do what they always have done; eat us. The only differences are the souvenirs that I ask them to bring back for me. It has all been going extremely well. It may be time to move on to my second phase soon." He stopped reading and went back out to Sam. He shook her shoulder and spoke to her in a calm voice.

"Hey, we need to gather as much of these notes as possible, okay? Hanji and Erwin need to see these right away. Come help me gather these and then we'll head back." Sam looked up at him and nodded weakly as she got up and helped him gather as much of the notes as they possibly could. When they were finished collecting them Levi handed both satchels to Sam telling her to wait outside and prepare to run. He fired a red smoke flare up into the air signaling the other two teams to start heading back early. Sam panicked a little, "Why the hell did you do that?! Weren't we trying to be discrete?!" Levi lit a match and turned his head to her. "After this, discretion won't be an option…" Levi then through the match onto a pile of the cloaks and walked out. "Let's go." He said as he started running towards the horses. Sam followed and they each took a satchel and got on their individual horses. They rode till they were about one-hundred yards away from the town then waited for the other teams. When they rode up, Jean and Eren were on one horse and Mikasa and Armin were on the other. Eren looked at Levi with an upset look. "What's the big deal, captain?! Why'd we pull out early?!" He looked at Eren and just calmly said, "We've done all we needed to do and gathered all the information we needed. It's time to report back." Then they all rode off as the black smoke of the burning building that concealed many tragedies, burned to ashes in the afternoon sky.


	5. A Way to Remember (3)

Levi and the crew had been riding for a couple of hours, and only had about halfway to go. Sam spoke up and pointed forward. "Hey guys, we're almost home free. All we have to do is get past that forest." The others, Eren and Levi especially, got a horrified look on their faces. Sam thought this was very unusual considering she has never seen Levi show that much emotion, ever. Levi spoke up, "We'll go around it." The others nodded but not too late after that they heard thumping and looked behind them. Jean yelled out, "Abnormals! Looks like they're about fifty yards back! Looks to be ten, no twelve! What the hell are they all doing together like that?!" Levi looked at him. "It doesn't matter. We can't fight that many at once so we'll just have to outrun them. Once we break off they won't know who to go after. Once I give the signal we'll break, got it?" They all nodded. After they got closer to the woods and the titans were about 10 yards away from them now, Levi was prepared to give the signal. "Alright," he said, "break off now-" but before he couldn't finish that sentence the unthinkable happened.

A whistle came from the woods and the titans split off, four on each side and picked up speed. The abnormals were now on either side of them and had cut off their options, leaving them with only the forest to go through. They all looked astonished beyond belief as they entered the forest. Eren yelled out, "What the fuck was that about?! How could they have possibly known to do that?!" Armin spoke up, "I heard a whistle coming from the entrance of the woods. They must've acted accordingly to that whistle and blocked off our means of escape by command. The real question is who commanded them. Also, how did they get the titans to listen to them." Levi looked at Sam on his left, and the others who were on his right. He motioned towards Sam. "Garret, give me the satchels." Sam looked at him with a curious face then threw him a satchel. He then took all of the papers out of both of them and put them in his left sleeve of his jacket. He then threw a satchel to Eren and a Satchel to Mikasa.

"You guys go ahead. Keep riding as fast as you can and don't stop until you get to the walls no matter what. Garret and I will take a different route and meet you there. The cover the trees provide you should be able to give you the chance to lose them if it's just your two horses. We'll all meet up once we get to the wall. If you're not rid of them by the time you're out of the forest, we'll come up from behind and take them out. I have a feeling they'll be fixed on getting those satchels back to notice us taking them down." They all nodded and Sam and Levi split off from everyone as Eren and Mikasa held the now empty satchels into the air for the abnormals to see.

Sam and Levi rode on for about an hour and everything had gone smoothly. They didn't see any titans through the trees and Sam pointed to a light through the trees. But then they heard it. Once again, the high pitched whistle rang through the trees. Sam and Levi heard thumping and before they knew it, there were four of the abnormal titans surrounding them in a square formation. Then they heard the whistle once again, only in a little lower pitch. Levi caught on and turned towards Sam. "Garret, get up to the top of that tree, now!" Levi pointed to the tree and used his maneuver gear to swing off towards it. Sam followed him up to the tree, and right after that the titans closed their formation in on itself and all ran into each other, crushing one of the horses in doing so as the other one ran off. "Just as I thought." Levi said standing next to Sam on the branch. "It's not the whistle itself, but the certain tone it makes. That's how they can precisely control them."

Sam interrupted, "But I thought the titans weren't smart enough to do that, even on command!" Levi scowled down at the titans beneath them. "I don't know anymore… Alright Garret, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna find the leftover horse, then we're gonna-" Then without warning the branch they were standing on snapped. They both hit a lot of branches on the way down but Sam ended up grabbing one of the thicker branches as she fell, along with grabbing Levi's left hand. "Captain, hold on! I'll pull you up!" Levi's maneuver gear had fallen off his body and onto the ground, being crushed right afterwards by the titans. Sam tried her hardest but the more she tried to pull him up the more her grip started to slip. "Captain, I'm gonna get you outta here! I'm gonna pull us up! I'm gonna-" Levi interrupted her with a shaky and monotone voice. "Sam… that's enough… we both know this is going to end one of two ways. Either we both fall to our deaths… or I fall and you relay the information…" Sam looked at him with a horrified look.

"Captain! Have you given up hope that easily?! You are humanities number one soldier! We can't-" he interrupted her again. "I wish that was still true… But if you take a look, I'm nothing more than a wounded horse." Sam looked down at Levi's left leg and saw that there was a branch sticking through it. Levi spoke again. "Must've gotten impaled… on the way down… Like I said, I'm a wounded horse now. Ackerman is the new top soldier and has been ever since I got my first injury. And what do you do with wounded horses… you shoot them." Sam looked at him as tears started dripping down her face. He continued, "It's fitting, though. That my time ends here. I honestly wouldn't have it any other way… maybe, by some miracle, by dying in the same place, I'll get to see all of them again… Sam… listen to me." He started slipping from her hand as she held on as tight as she could and mustered the strength to say something. "W-what is it…" more tears spilled from her eyes. "I want you to fulfill my last wish for me… I need you to do something for me… when you get back… Sam… I need you to-" and right at that moment, an abnormal jumped up, and all that Sam was holding on to, was her former captains left arm.

Sam looked down with absolute horror as she hung there. She gave out a horrific scream that echoed throughout the forest. She hung there and watched the titans walk away and she yelled out with all she could. "Give him back! Give him back you motherfuckers!" She felt her heart speed up and her breathing start to get faster. "This is the second time! The second fucking time you took something precious from me! Give him the fuck back!" She breathed heavily as she looked down at the arm she was holding, and then blacked out. She was fazing in and out of dizziness but right before she fell she heard a crash of thunder. Then she was being lifted back up. Then she heard gigantic footsteps run off into the distance.

Sam woke up a few hours after that on a high branch in a tree. It was going to be dawn soon. She looked beside her and saw the arm there. She got a flashback to the last moment before Levi died and started crying again. "What was it… what did you want me to do…" She grabbed the ice cold hand from the severed arm and gripped it tight. "What was it, Levi… please… please tell me…" Just then she felt the sleeve and heard something crinkle. She rolled up the sleeve and pulled the papers out. She gripped them and now had a determined look. She looked around seeing what tree to grapple onto with her maneuver gear, but then noticed her horse as she looked down onto the ground. It was tied to a thick branch that was sticking out of the ground. Sam whispered to herself. "What the hell…" She didn't question it any further and stuffed the notes into her boots and jumped down to the ground with her maneuver gear. She untied the horse and rode off towards the gates.

She rode on to the gates over the next couple of hours as it had just started to hit dawn. All the way she had a determined face and managed to avoid all contact with the titans. She finally started to reach the gates and she got a smile on her face, but it was soon replaced with a look of horror. Eren, Armin, Mikasa, and Jean were all waiting there, just as planned. She knew there were going to be questions. She kept riding and stopped in front of them. Eren greeted her, "Hey there! We managed to lose the titans in the forest, just as the captain said!" Sam got down off the horse and almost fell down right there, but Jean caught her. Jean helped her up. "Sam… where's the captain?" They all looked at her with a worried face. She just kept looking down and sniffled as tears started streaming down her face again. "Captain Levi… Captain Levi… Captain…" She said with a horrified look and with each pause came a flashback of the time she spent training with him. The time she spent conversing with him. And the day before their final mission together. All these thoughts ran through her head and she lost it and pounded her chest with her fist as she did the salute. "Squad leader captain Levi has fulfilled his duty in the fight for humanity and has died heroically and meaningfully in battle!"

They all stared at her in horror. Eren looked down in shock. "C… C… Captain… No… how… this isn't real…" a few tears left Eren's eyes. Mikasa looked down with a saddened look and gritted her teeth. Armin stared at Sam in complete shock as if still trying to comprehend what she had just said. Jean looked down with a sad look and held his head with one hand and whispered to himself. "Dammit… Not again… it happened again…" Jean then took a deep breath and spoke in a shaky voice. "Sam… do you… do you have the papers…" The others looked at him in shock. Eren walked up to him and grabbed the collar of his shirt with an enraged look. "What the fuck is the matter with you?! We just lost a friend and all you care about are some fucking papers?!" Jean yelled back, "He was a soldier Eren!" Eren shook him a little. "He was our friend!" Jean shouted at the top of his lungs, "Friends don't get free passes!" Eren's look changed from angry to shocked. Jean slapped his hands away. "I'm just as upset as you are, Eren. But the sooner this information gets turned in, the sooner we catch the son of a bitch who made this all happen." Jean walked towards Sam and held out his hand. She reached into her boot and grabbed the papers and shakily handed them to him. "C'mon Sam, the commander is going to have questions for you, no doubt about it." He guided her as she followed him and as he walked past he turned to Eren. "Finish the mission… then you can mourn…" He then walked Sam to the commanders building, leaving the others standing there speechless.

Sam went into the chief commander's office with the papers. He read through them all and listened to her story. "If what you say is true, and these papers are telling the truth" he said, "then there is no doubt that one of our own has learned to control the titans." Sam spoke in a monotone voice. "No." She said, "It is my belief that they have only learned to control abnormal titans. Abnormal titans are genuinely more intelligent than regular titans. All something has to do is have the comprehension of a dog to follow orders. This person figured that out and used it to their advantage. I also believe that they control the abnormal titans using different toned whistles. I've experienced this all first hand, and captain Levi helped me come to these conclusions through his actions." The commander stood there. "Is that so..." He sat down in his chair and looked at her. "I will take that into account. I will always remember Squad Captain Levi as well. He was a great soldier and will be dearly missed." Sam turned towards the door and opened it but stopped. "No you won't… you won't remember… no one ever does…" She then shut the door and left.

It was now dawn and Sam walked to a humongous tree right in the middle of the Klorva District inside wall Rose. She brought a wooden cross with her as she walked up to the tree and looked beside it at the one she had placed there a few years ago. "I never thought I'd have to do this again…" She said as she started putting the cross on the other side of the tree. Once she finished putting the cross in tears fell from her face once again. She stood up and did the salute as she started to sing.

_The survey core flies proud and strong_

_We'll bring back hope after not too long_

_We'll go out and take back humanity_

_And humans will regain supremacy_

_Our minds, hearts, bodies, and soul belong_

_To mankind until our lives are gone_

_Today we will not just die in vain_

_Humanity will rise once again_

Sam dropped to her knees. "There needs to be something… something to remember the people who lost their lives…" That's when she looked up at the gigantic tree in front of her. She took her sword and started carving into the tree. Once she was done carving into the tree she put her sword back and walked away. The tree now had two names carved into it. It now said Levi, and under Levi's name, it said Justin Garret. From there on out, Sam had started something that would give a lot of people the happiness and closure they needed. She had started The Tree of Remembrance. She has finally given them… a way to remember.


End file.
